Way up a holler between a couple of prominent knobs, below Panther (pronounced "Painter") Knob, we're building a log cabin. Go to the archives and start at the bottom for a chronological story. Comments are welcome! This diary of a project may digress and venture into literature, life, and my reflections on any particular day.

I'll update this post soon with more of an explanation, but this year I decided to jumpstart my overall fitness during the upcoming season by riding my bike every single day of the coldest, darkest month of the year. I walked away from bike racing in 2006, when fuel prices were high and my firstborn boy started walking. My last few years of racing, in my late 30s, were in some ways my best. I had discovered track racing, and the closed short circuit, strategy, structure and rules, not to mention it being a natural fit for my fast-twitch sprinter's body. Between 1990 and 2006, I've been dropped before the finish in more road races than I'd care to admit, and even getting to the sprint at the end of an hour-long criterium challenges me. But a 9-minute track race? No problem!

Anyhow, I'll post more about the January Challenge soon. In short, I ride every day this month, be it outside on a road bike, a fixed gear, a mountain bike, or my single-speed mountain bike, or inside on the rollers (here) or even the Schwinn spin bike at the gym, on which my old Shimano Carbon racing shoes fit the SPD pedals. It just has to be 30 minutes, minimum. My friend Shane, also a product of early 90's racing and especially the East Coast crit scene, is doing his variation of the same plan. So last night, he and his wife and three small boys came over, he and I spun for an hour while Sloan and A.J. made pizza, and the five small ones wreaked their usual havoc. A.J. was indulgent enough to step outside and take this video. Enjoy!